6. Algonquin Park, Canada

Found in the center of Southern Ontario, just a three-hour drive from Toronto, Algonquin Park is a natural paradise on Earth, with its wind-sculptured pines, craggy shorelines and rushing rivers. Aside from a few camping grounds, lodgings and park buildings, the park is completely free from the burden of human civilization. Indeed, if you can’t get a little rest and relaxation here, you’re screwed.

Stay at one of Killarney Lodge’s log cabins, tucked away between the trees on the shore of a shimmering trout-filled lake. Explore the surrounding wilderness during the day, canoeing on the lakes, swimming in the streams, fishing in the rivers or hiking along the trails, and soak up this relatively untouched Garden of Eden before you return to the big, bad city. If you’re lucky, you’ll encounter moose and beavers during your ramble, but if you’re not so lucky, you’ll meet one of the park’s 2,000 black bears.

Hunker down in your cabin at night and sleep well against the backdrop of croaking frogs, hooting owls and howling wolves.